Installation view of Sukkot and Resurfacing, 2018
Resurfacing (clip), 2018
Installation view of Resurfacing, 2018, glazed ceramic, nylon, pigmented urethane, and sound, 39 in x 49 in x 21 in
Resurfacing (detail), 2018, glazed ceramic, nylon, pigmented urethane, and sound, 39 in x 49 in x 21 in
Resurfacing (detail), 2018, glazed ceramic, nylon, pigmented urethane, and sound, 39 in x 49 in x 21 in
Resurfacing is a sound sculpture that depicts personal mutation in a ceramic shell/ear that is stitched together.
When I was 7 years old, I was submitted to 3 cosmetic reconstructive surgeries, through which the only purpose was to assimilate me into normative societal ideologies. My constructed ear was made out of cartilage taken from my ribcage and skin grafts– this sculpture is stitched together, as I am– and instead of functioning as a “normal” ear that takes sound in, Resurfacing generates sound and haptics. Mutation is a recurring refusal and rejection of ableist and heteronormative expectations that our society enforces.
Resurfacing is based on my deformed ear, as well as a shell that my grandmother Henrietta found— an oyster that has cemented itself to a whelk, both of which have become weathered and hole-ridden by the sea.
My birth mutation may have been caused by a variety of impacts including environmental triggers. I glazed Resurfacing in toxic slime green, oceanic blues, and otherworldly purples to emphasize how othered abled perspectives of my mutation have made me feel. I have been working for decades to unlearn the deeply internalized idea that I had to be fixed as a small child. With Resurfacing, I work to reclaim my bodily autonomy and generate conversations about childhood body modification and allowed agency.
The sounds include distorted field recordings of the bay climbing up stone steps, cello that is mediated to resemble a fog horn & emergency warnings, humming vocals from inside a cave, and a Max MSP patch programmed to make metallic owl-like sounds in reaction to data from my surgeries– all of which emanates from holes in a large-scale ceramic sculpture, where the sounds are further shifted by the ceramic instrument itself as they emerge.
Sukkot (detail), 2018, screenprint and ink on paper, 40 in x 171 in
Sukkot (detail), 2018, screenprint and ink on paper, 40 in x 171 in
Sukkot (detail), 2018, screenprint and ink on paper, 40 in x 171 in
Sukkot (detail), 2018, screenprint and ink on paper, 40 in x 171 in
Sukkot is a Jewish holiday which commemorates the structures that my ancestors built while wandering the desert after fleeing from slavery in Egypt. In modern diasporic celebrations of Sukkot, these shelters provide gathering places that foster supportive, discursive communities. A sukkah is a space that we construct for a week each year to share meals in, and to live in; I use the sukkah as a symbol for the state of refuge that I find with my intersecting queer and Jewish communities- my chosen family.
This body of work emphasizes the vitality of constructed spaces in defiance of the deadly systems which look to oppress us for their gain. Instead of imagining utopian futures, my work constructively complicates the worlds that we navigate- chosen and unchosen. We build our sukkot to create co-shaping environments of collective healing and growth, where we hold ourselves and each other accountable. Through this discursive world-building we open up the possibilities of living.